Rebel MP Congress MLAs embarrass CM Kamal Nath; thrash 'hostage' claim & praise Scindia

In a massive development in the Madhya Pradesh political crisis, the Congress rebel MLAs on Tuesday held a press conference in Bengaluru. Breaking their silence over their resignation from Congress, MLA Govind Singh Rajput said that they all have come to Bengaluru voluntarily and dismissed all the reports of them being held hostage, as claimed by Kamal Nath. The MLAs also said that Chief Minister Kamal Nath never had time to speak to them over development issues in their constituency. 

'Scindia had an important role in govt formation in MP'

Speaking to the media Rajput said, "We have heard many times in the media that we have been held, hostage. But you see we have come voluntarily, not hostages. When the government was formed, Rahul Ji made two faces of the government, one is Kamal Nath and the other is Scindia Ji. This entire state knows that Scindia Ji had an important role in the formation of the Madhya Pradesh government. Instead of making Scindia Ji the Chief Minister, we made Kamal Nath, we thought that everything would be fine."

"After becoming the CM the behaviour of Kamal Nath changed. Kamal Nath Ji never heard us even for 15 minutes. Then whom should we talk to for development work in our constituency? Despite being a minister, I want to say that one can not get a gun license, we cannot get a transfer done, what should we do if there is no cooperation for the development of the area?," he added.

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'We demand security'

Further speaking about the development he said, "But by the CM's side, not a single penny was given for getting work done in my constituency. Being a cabinet minister I used to sit in the cabinet meeting and money was given only for the work in the Chhindwara region. I even asked CM why was so much money only given to one region. One cannot win an election by developing just one region." 

"I also want to say that my fellow MLAs from Congress, if you ask them and leave them open they might too come to Bengaluru with us but they are helpless. We are ready to go Bhopal but how can we be safe if Scindia Ji can be attacked so can we. We have demanded security and protection. We were seeing many things in the press that our phones have been deposited, we have been held hostage under the shadow of guns. So we talked to the press today." he added.

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Guv writes to CM

On Monday, the Madhya Pradesh governor Lalji Tandon has yet again written to Chief Minister Kamal Nath urging him to hold floor test on March 17, sources said. This came even as the assembly speaker adjourned the Madhya Pradesh assembly till March 26 citing coronavirus scare, earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the BJP has moved the Supreme Court against the speaker and the top court will hear the case on Tuesday. 

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Madhya Pradesh political crisis

The crisis in the Kamal Nath government started when Congress alleged BJP of poaching 4 MLAs - Surendra Singh Shera, Bisahulal Singh, Hardeep Singh Dang, and Raghuraj Kansana when they were flown to Bengaluru. While two of them have returned to Kamal Nath's folds, 18 MLAs including 6 Cabinet Ministers flew to Bengaluru on Monday. 

In a major jolt to the Chief Minister, the former Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia formally submitted his resignation to Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. He then formally joined the BJP after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter's residence along with former BJP party chief Amit Shah and has since then slammed the Congress saying 'it was not the same anymore'. He has since then been fielded by the BJP for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

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